


but with colorful apathy

by orphan_account



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coronavirus Quarantine Blues, Depression, F/M, Gen, Linhardt is a depressed gamer, gratuitous Vocaloid and Visual-Kei band references, the reclusive and depressed scholars are friends and two of them are dating: the fic, this is. Extremely self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:27:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24012823
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Title taken from the Vocaloid song Humanoid’s Humanism, covered by Soraru. Hello yes I am projecting. No idea where this is headed but whoever thought of Linhardt and Marianne first is a genius and should be applauded as such. To those who read, thank you and enjoy.
Relationships: Marianne von Edmund/Linhardt von Hevring
Kudos: 7





	but with colorful apathy

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from the Vocaloid song Humanoid’s Humanism, covered by Soraru. Hello yes I am projecting. No idea where this is headed but whoever thought of Linhardt and Marianne first is a genius and should be applauded as such. To those who read, thank you and enjoy.

“Hello, bitches and cats, and welcome to another riveting round of Persona 5 Royal, the motherfucking dating sim.” 

Even by his standards, Linhardt’s greeting lacked enthusiasm. His usual watchers tuning in for his weekly gaming stream acknowledged his tone, some of them flooding the comments with well-meaning platitudes intended to ease the boredom. Instead they brought out a long sigh. 

“Today’s broadcast is brought to y’all by depression,” Lindhardt said, leaning down to check his pulsing phone on his bed; Bernadetta, asking if he had time to beta read her newest fic. 

Wincing, Linhardt realized she’d asked him three times in one week.

“Hey, y’all, at some point, remind me to get back to my friend in the comments?”

Someone wrote he should pause the game right then, but he was in the middle of a crucial conversation involving two characters he’d desperately missed. 

Time and again, Ferdinand reminded him to prioritize his friends and reading over games and coping mechanisms, groaning theatrically when Linhardt argued that reading was the most socially acceptable coping mechanism aside from watching Netflix, and that gaming was more of a connector now than it had ever been. 

He’d had too much time to indulge in his computer screen. The truth in Ferdinand’s words sucked the fun out of his sedentary hobbies. More often than not, his words had drawn out a horrible ache for napping with beloved company.

He said, “Like most of you, probably, I’ve been horribly negligent in terms of keeping in touch. This quarantine shit really do be hitting us reclusive scholars hard even if we show it through sardonic quips.”

His phone pulsed again. This time, Bernadetta asked a different question:

_ would it be fun if I joined your stream and offered up my vocaloid playlists please say yes I am very proud of them and want to share them with your brethren  _

“Oh my god.”

Immediately, Linhardt’s hand flashed across his keyboard.

Seconds later, the user _purple_screaming_dervish_ appeared, and Linhardt grinned, saying, “My friend’s wondering if y’all would be up for hearing her favorite Vocaloid tunes. We mostly live off of Soraru and Mafumafu and Eve, but we’re always open to recommendations.”

Right then, the user MvEthereal wrote:  _Yes, please. Did you two watch Soraru’s Stay Home stream?_ 🥺💙

In fact, the previous evening, Bernadetta had smashed out a passionate flood of messages to Linhardt regarding Soraru’s intimate Stay Home video on his YouTube channel. _(_ _ He sits around and streams Splatoon!! He said so in that duet he did with Sakata!!!! I LOVE ONE (1) MAN!!!!???!!!!!) _

“Yeah, um, we love him,” Linhardt said, his smile widening in spite of himself. 

He recognized Marianne’s username from the time they’d exchanged streaming handles in their Witchcraft and Impacts on Natural Remedies class. 

Evidently, they’d both been waiting to approach the other, but they’d both assumed the other hadn’t signed up for some obscure class to make friends and wouldn’t respond favorably to distractions from their learning. 

That all changed when Linhardt’s notebook had slipped from his knees under his desk and he’d bent down, his gaze aligning with Marianne’s MP3 player in the process.

“I don’t know whether to be relieved or disgusted someone has the same godawful taste in music as me,” he’d said, making a show of scrunching up his face in an exaggerated grimace.

Surprisingly, Marianne had glowed with a kind of stupefying joy. She’d proceeded to explain how Beast of Blood was the only Malice Mizer song she truly enjoyed and how Klaha, the band’s vocalist at the time of that song’s debut, vanished into obscurity and probably became an overworked salaryman who died of chronic exhaustion.

The two of them had been regularly corresponding ever since, though with the quarantine exacerbating Marianne’s debilitating depression, her messages had become worryingly sporadic. 

Not wanting to bombard her, Linhardt had waited one week into quarantine before asking her if she would like to talk on the phone. He’d stopped asking about video chatting when Marianne had told him staring at his face through a screen made her realize how much she wanted to hold his hands in hers, hear his breathing against her lips, hold him close as they shared another long nap.

Now that she’d reached out to him again, the tension tightening Linhardt’s limbs eased up, and he sighed again, his eyes closing in relief.

**Author's Note:**

> someday I want to write a fic where boys don’t exist and it’s just they/them Linhardt and the girls. Just they/them Linhardt, Marianne and Bernadetta living their slice of life anime life and no one else. Where is that fic for me. I want it.


End file.
